Henry, the last serious Western attempt to tackle Islamic fundamentalism was the double feature of Iraq and Afghanistan—a box-office flop that left the West about $7 trillion lighter and with nothing but bad reviews to show for it. Both conflicts go firmly into the “loss” column, with the West learning the hard way that wars don’t come with a refund policy.

What’s fascinating, though, is that Islamic culture might just be the least “woke” on Earth. They’ve mastered the art of gender segregation, skipped the chapter on LGBTQ rights, and don’t even bother with the concept of transgender identities. If nothing else, they’re consistent. But where they really shine is in population growth—think of it as the ultimate competitive edge. While the Christian West and Buddhist East are debating pronouns, Islam is busy cranking out the next generation like it’s an Olympic sport. Syria, for instance, has managed a population bump of 15% after its civil war. Meanwhile, Japan, the overachiever in not having babies, is down 3 million people in the same timeframe.

Another thing Islam has going for it? It thrives in low-tech environments. Take away the Wi-Fi and the air conditioning, and they’d barely notice. The U.S., on the other hand, might spontaneously combust if the transfer payments stopped tomorrow. Blame it on wokeness if you want—that’s the trendy scapegoat—but I think the issue runs deeper. We’re a society powered by fossil fuels, and they’ve turned us into a bunch of entitled couch potatoes. The real Achilles’ heel here isn’t wokeness; it’s that we’ve grown so comfortable we’d probably panic if someone unplugged our phones.